Shall we play a game?

Yesterday over breakfast, while my daughter and I gazed sleepily at our respective laptops, tea in hand, she announced that there would be a very limited theater release one night one time only showing of WarGames. It was the 25th anniversary (yes, now I feel REALLY old.) She’d never seen it, and neither had her boyfriend. These kids are hardcore gamers, Erik’s a program de-bugger (I’m sure there’s some more technical term for what he does, but you get the idea) and Felicia’s a Political Science/Philosophy major, and neither of them ever saw WarGames.

The audience was disappointingly small, maybe a good twenty of us in all, and aside from our kids, all were of a vintage that we recognized 8″ Floppy disks, Apple IIs, rotary phones, Ataris and Galaga arcade machines. Oh, and soda cans with pull-tabs. I was delighted to see a 78 Fairmont in one of the early scenes, not to mention some lovely Ford pickups. And the audience found it amusing when a then 17 year old Ally Sheedy declares “Forty-one? That’s OLD.” Yet with all the nostalgia, the message remains disturbingly relevant, and it’s amazing to see just how, even after 25 years, as much as things have changed, they’ve stayed disturbingly the same. For all of you who remember that movie, you know what I mean. But see it again. The past twenty-five years gave me a different perspective, revealing facets I couldn’t appreciate or comprehend in 1983. And for those of you who’ve never seen this movie, see it. Then think about it.

“A mystery in the John D. MacDonald tradition – both in its largely watery setting and tone, the novel also brings to mind Dashiell Hammett in the complexity of its plot, and even Stieg Larsson in its use of a strong young woman with an attitude as a main character. Last Exit In New Jersey is well-paced, densely-plotted story that mystery-thriller fans will enjoy immensely.”
~ Alex Austin, author of The Red Album of Asbury Park Remixed

Hazel Moran, the tough truck-driving amateur sleuth introduced in Last Exit in New Jersey, returns in this dark and twisting sequel.